Foley: 'Limitations on reasonableness' of right to bear arms

Neil Vigdor

Published 6:58 pm, Saturday, February 2, 2013

Tom Foley listens during a news conference for Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon in Newington, Conn., March 14, 2012. Foley has said he will again run for governor in 2014. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Photo: Jessica Hill, Associated Press

Next year's gubernatorial race could present a tightrope walk for Greenwich Republican Tom Foley and the rest of his party concerning a core value of the GOP: the right to bear arms.

Foley, who is hoping to make it double or nothing against Democratic incumbent Dannel P. Malloy in 2014, said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Newspapers that the state must strike a balance between that constitutional right and public safety following the Dec. 14 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

"Listen, I support the Second Amendment," Foley said. "I do believe that Americans do have a fundamental right to own firearms, but I do think there certainly are limitations on the reasonableness of that right. When our laws permit people to commit horrible crimes, like were committed in Sandy Hook, the Legislature in Connecticut or federally ought to take into account the bad things that can happen while extending fundamental rights to Americans."

Foley, who lost to Malloy by 6,500 votes in 2010, has exercised that right.

"I only own shotguns," he said.

Foley, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland under President George W. Bush, stopped short of embracing an assault weapons ban, like the one sponsored by members of Connecticut's congressional delegation at the federal level or one recently passed by New York state.

"I think the litmus test for any gun control legislation should be, would the action taken have prevented what happened at Sandy Hook?"

The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, which was introduced last week in Washington, would ban sales of the Bushmaster XM-15 E2S, the semi-automatic rifle used by Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza to kill 20 children age 7 and under, and six adults in the worst grade-school massacre in U.S. history.

The .223-caliber rifle meets some, but not all, of the specifications to be considered an illegal assault weapon in Connecticut under the state's existing gun laws. It is capable of accepting detachable magazines of ammunition and has a pistol grip, both of which the state says are characteristic of assault weapons.

"I think if the manufacturer, if their intent was to produce an assault weapon to get under the laws, then it should be disallowed."

On the push to limit the number of rounds of ammunition held in gun magazines, Foley said that if the investigation into the Newtown tragedy shows that high-capacity clips played a role in the murders, he could accept that.

"If it turns out that something with respect to high-capacity magazines would have prevented what happened at Sandy Hook, I think that's an appropriate thing for the Legislature to consider changing."

While he has been highly critical of Malloy throughout his rival's first term, Foley said he was heartened by the governor's comments about the ongoing efforts to combat violence.

"I was encouraged that in the statement that he made that they were going to focus on legislative changes that would have prevented what happened at Sandy Hook and not use Sandy Hook as an excuse for broader gun control measures that would have been unrelated to the incident at Sandy Hook." Foley said.

Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Malloy, who was Stamford mayor from 1995 to 2009, stressed that the governor does not intend to politicize the debate.

"This is not a political issue for the governor," Doba said. "He wants a comprehensive gun violence prevention policy that also addresses our mental health system in a meaningful way, and is working every day to achieve that goal."

State Republican Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. echoed Foley in a statement to Hearst.

"Ensuring the safety of our citizens and children must be accomplished without trampling over the rights and protections afforded to us under the Second Amendment," Labriola said. "I have no problem with reasonable reforms in the area of background checks and strict enforcement of our existing laws regulating firearms, including the closing of loopholes. However, we should guard against overreach and power grabs by President Obama and other liberal politicians in the name of public safety."